Edmund BurkeThinkers

Accumulation is a powerful thing. By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

Action is grounded in motives relative to a man's interest, and not on metaphysical speculations.

Action is always better than inaction. Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves.

America is, in 1775, little more than an amusement of savagery and uncouth manners shall soon attract the envy of the world.

The Antagonist is our helper, for he who struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill.

Art is a partnership not only between those who are living but between those who are dead and those who are yet to be born.

Change is, in fact, also a conservative principle. If a state is without the means of some change, it is without the means of its conservation.

Change is the most fundamental and powerful law of nature.

Character is discerned most truly in the relaxation of security, in the expansion of prosperity, in in the hour of dilatation of the heart, and of its softening into festivity and pleasure.

Community is the notion that no men can act with effect who do not act in concert... that no men can act in concert who do not act with confidence... and that no men can act with confidence who are not bound together with common opinions, common affections, and common interests.